Case Management:The Benefits of

Matter Centricity

Presenters:Andrew Z. Adkins III

Joel Alleyne

April 2-4, 2009www.techshow.com

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Agenda

• Introductions• Definitions• Examples• From Point “A” to Point “B”• Advantages & Disadvantages• Pitfalls to Avoid• Questions

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Andrew Z. Adkins III• University of Florida Levin College of Law (1997 – present)

– Director, Legal Technology Institute (1997 - present)– Adjunct Professor, Law Practice Management (2001 - present)– Associate Director, Technology Services (2003-2007)– Executive Director, ICAIR (1998 – present)

• Legal Technology Consultant (1989)– More than 325 consultations with Law Firms, Law Departments, Judiciary,

Legal Verticals• Author

– Three Years, Eleven Months, 29 Days (2009)– The Lawyer’s Guide to Practice Management Systems Software (2009)– You Can’t Get Much Closer Than This (2005)– Computerized Case Management Systems (1999)– WordPerfect Law Office Solutions (1995)– The KM Study, The ASP Study, The Internet Study– More than 200 articles published on legal technology

• Chair ABA TECHSHOW 2000, 2001• Co-Chair, LegalTech Conferences 2001 – 2007• adkins@law.ufl.edu | 352-273-0765

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Joel Alleyne

• President, Alleyne Inc.• Adjunct Professor, University of

Toronto (Faculty of Information & Faculty of Medicine)

• Practitioner-in-Residence, Knowledge Media Design Institute, UofT

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Definitions

• Financial Management Systems• Document Management Systems• Case Management Systems• Matter Management Systems• Litigation Management Systems• Practice Management Systems

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Matter Centricity - Defined

“Matter centricity takes all documents, emails, and other files and organizes them into client matter and makes them retrievable in one place.”

“All firm-related information is in the case file.”

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Matter Lifecycle Analysis

The right information in the right place at the right time

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Why Matter Centricity?• Attorneys and staff can be more productive

– Information is easily accessible and well organized– Work process standards can be established

• The firm is in a better position to capture the value of its knowledge base

• When case information is centralized into an identifiable data store, the firm is in a much better position to manage the lifecycle of client records and institute a workable retention policy on those records

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The “Old Way”• Paper documents, faxes filed in folder(s)• Print out emails and file in folder(s)• Client invoices in file folder(s)• Folders filed in expandable file folder

(e.g., “Redweld”)• Redwelds filed in filing cabinets

Only one person can have the client file at any one time

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The “Old Way” - Paper

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The “Old” Way - Info SilosBilling

Docs

MattersE-Mail

Where do ‘ya start?

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Simple Search (?)

• Search E-mails• Search Documents• Search Time & Billing System• Search Calendar

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Information Management Challenges

• Working Files• Managing Disparate Parts• E-mail Management• Personal/Group Precedent

Management• Collaboration/Sharing• Communicate/Comment/Context• …

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Can Technology Help?Matter Management

• “Goal” (Utopian View) is to have One Point of Access to all Information About a Matter– Client/Matter Information– Documents– Time & Billing Details– Relationships – Who’s Who at the Client– The Client Service Team– E-mail– Conversations/Discussions– “News” and Other External Information About the

Client/Matter– Relevant Knowledge Artifacts– Etc. …

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Matter Centric System - Example(Case, Matter, Practice Management)

Calendared Events

ToDo Tasks

Contacts

Documents

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State of the Market

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Some Attorneys …

• Live and Work in Outlook/e-mail• Figure They Can Manage

Everything within Microsoft Outlook and Word

• … This is NOT the audience we are speaking to

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Large Firms• Financial Management

– Aderant, Elite• Document Management

– Autonomy (fka, Interwoven), OpenText, Worldox• Case, Matter Information

– MS Office, Outlook, Access– Also LS tools such as Summation, Concordance,

CaseMap, HotDocs, DealBuilder• Also on the Radar

– Corporate Portals (e.g., SharePoint & others)– Enterprise or Federated Search (e.g., Reccomind,

Autonomy)

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Tier II, Tier III Firms

• Similar Tools Like– Abacus– Amicus Attorney– Practice Master– TimeMatters

• Tend to be Swiss Army Knife-like Tools

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Corporate Law Departments

• Adopting Similar Tools– Document Management– Document Assembly– Matter Tracking– Work Assignment (Track Matters

Assigned to Law Firms)

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Matter Management SystemsCorporate Law Departments

• Abacus • Perfect Practice • Managing Partner• Client Profiles • Case & Point• Amicus Attorney • TrialWorks • Legal Files• LegalEdge• LAWTRAC

• CaseManagerPro• TeamConnectLegal• Needles• PerfectLaw• RocketMatter• PracticeMaster• LawBase• ProLaw• TimeMatters

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Matter Management SystemsLarge Size Firms

• Abacus• Perfect Practice • Managing Partner• Client Profiles• Amicus Attorney• TrialWorks• LawLogix

• Legal Files• CaseManager Pro• Needles• Omega Legal• PerfectLaw • LawBase• TimeMatters

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

• Before – Application Service Provider (ASP)

• Software is hosted on a vendors server and you use it on your desktop with a “thin client” or a browser

• Adkins, “The ASP Study: An Inside Look into the Future Use of ASPs in the Legal Profession.” (2000)– The survivors – CaseManagerPro, CaseCentral,

and Serengeti• Emerging vendors

– Clio and RocketMatter

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SaaS Offerings• Case and Matter Management Systems – Web-based, ASP,

and SaaS– Client Profiles – Client Profiles Case Management System– Lawex Corporation – TrialWorks Case Management Software– LawLogix Group, Inc. – LawLogix– Legal Files Software, Inc. – Legal Files– LegalEdge Software – LegalEdge Case Management Web– LexisNexis – TimeMatters Total Practice Advantage– Lucid IQ – CaseManager Pro– Mitratech – TeamConnect Legal– PerfectLaw Software – PerfectLaw Software– Rocket Matter, L.L.C. – Rocket Matter– Synaptec Software, Inc. – LawBase– Themis Solutions, Inc. – Clio– Thomson-Elite – ProLaw

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SaaS

• Already in use in many forms– Deal Rooms– Electronic Discovery Portals / Shared

sites– Google Documents– Etc.

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SaaS Issues

• Where is Your Data?– Security– Confidentiality– Privacy

• Reliability– e.g., uptime

• Functionality– Will it do what you need it to do?

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Possible Barriers

• Firm culture• Lack of “buy-in” from users• Changing the way attorneys and

staff practice law• IT Support• Training & Skill Development

– The “Learning Curve”• Privacy, Security, Confidentiality

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Efficiencies

• Reduce search time (estimates that people spend 15 – 30% of their time searching for information)

• Information & knowledge at your fingertips

• All team members on the same page

• Collaboration

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How to Fail Your MC Rollout

• Don’t let the attorneys share case/client/matter information

• Don’t standardize on case/client/matter file and document naming conventions

• Allow users to choose to be “in or out”

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Future Considerations

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Matter Context is Key

• Context is the “Holy Grail”– Add “why” to “what”

• Narrative context is very difficult to solicit, document

• How else can we mine context?– Portals– Web 2.0– Web services

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Could Matter-Centricity Work?• Focus is on the matter lifecycle (process), not

just matter-related information (in isolation)• Information access will be context-driven• Personalization is multi-faceted (e.g. role –

practice group – office)• Matter interface will be “personalized” (e.g.

Litigation and Business Law matters require access to different types of information and functionality)

• Enterprise search will be integrated with the portal

• Information will be syndicated to the portal, rather than presented as mini-applications

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Should We Bother?

• Matter lifecycle portals require substantial investment in:– Change management– Analysis– Technology– Peopleby everyone!

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What About the Clients –Law Firm Interface?

• In many law firms, there is a disconnect between the perception of a matter as an internal project and the firm’s interactions with its clients

• Client matter interaction frequently takes place through Extranets that exist separately from the portal or core systems such as document management

• In-house counsel deal with many firms and their Extranets

• An integrated platform will serve the needs of both internal matter management and client-facing collaboration

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Web Services

• Context?– Tie to the matter lifecycle?– Mine different kinds of information?

• Role of:– Search?– Portals?

• What about Document Management?

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Future Opportunities

• Shared Space• My Portal talks to Your Portal

– Transaction and event driven– Synchronized so we are on the same page

• Semantic Web• Information Shared Between Systems

– The technology already exists:• RSS Feeds• XML• MS Groove

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Future Opportunities

• Knowledge Process Outsourcing –Requires Coordination

• Blurring of the Domains– Information Management– Knowledge Management

• Innovation• A Focus on “Process” – How Things

Get Done37

Questions?

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Thank You!

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Case Studies

• Case 1– Large Law Firm– Portal Driven– Portal Functionality Built Primarily

Around Matter Centric Access to “All Info About the Client/Matter”

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Case Studies

• Case 2– Large Law Firm– Enterprise Search Driven– Data Presented From a Number of

Sources Using Search Tools– Provide Info from Internal and External

Sources

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Case Studies• Case 3

– In-house Corporate Department– Looking for Ways to Track Assignments to

Outside Law Firms– Established Portal Where:

• Work assignments given to outside firms• Progress is monitored on a regular basis

– Key milestones & events• BUT, wanted monthly reports they used to get on

paper. Why? (different medium)– Case/Matter Management from In-house

Perspective is Other Side of the Same Coin

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Lessons Learned• Users need to know Windows file

management structure• Make sure users get enough training

– Not only in the MC application, but also in the concept of matter centricity

– Users need to have a comparison of how they do it now versus how they’ll do it with the MC application

• Plan the migration based on “groups”– Practice groups– Office locations

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Lessons Learned• Know (and plan for) there will be issues

during rollout– Implementation issues– Migration issues– End user issues

• Beef up training, not just on the application, but the entire MC environment

• Key to success is getting everyone involved from the beginning, working together and talking with each other

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Lessons Learned

• Use the integrator/consultant to help with the rollout– They are impartial and don’t have the

firm history or past relationships which can impede progress.

– Consultants have the experience of knowing what worked and what didn’t work at other firms

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